Let's say a pump costs £250,000 and annual insurance for a brigade costs £200,000. Theses costs are fixed costs, they do not vary depending on how many times it is used. Like wages, they will be paid if the pump is in use or not. This is accountancy gone mad.
How much does it "cost" to do one of these smoke detector visits then? Why not save loads and stop doing them?
I agree
As you say certain costs are fixed regardless of how many times the appliances are used
I was just guestimating how they calculate the costs, perhaps someone here will know a little bit more about it.
But it is possible to break down what those fixed costs relate to per incident if you really wanted.
Lets imagine for example it costs £100,000 per year to insure the brigade for operation duties, and they attended 100,000 incidents you could say the insurance costs £1 per incident.
Then do the same with wages, fuel, maintenance etc to get total cost of all these factors per incident
But if they attend 100,001 incidents, it does not cost £1 more.
On the basis that maintenance is done in house, that staff are salaried, that insurance is not milage dependant and that fire engines wear and tear based on time, not miles, the only variable cost is fuel, but is fairly insignificant.
On the basis that the road safety risk is significantly lower than the risk of injuries to the public from fire, I still think it makes more logical sence to send both, as I said a wee while back.
Fuel fairly insignificant - grrrr dont get me started on fuel prices Mr Houston!!!!!!! Sore subject at the mo!
A diesel fire appliance isnt the most economical of beasts so the fuel prices will be reasonably significant particularly as they either remain on tick over during incidents or are pumping.
Despite in house maintenance etc there would still be costs involved spare parts / employing mechanics / equipment / 24 hour support for front line appliances etc etc. And that isnt cheap.
Plus then figure in all the support staff costs, fire control staff, equipment, PPE, fuel, maintenance, and everything else that goes into making sure the fire service can actually respond to incidents I guess thats where the figures come from.
But i agree they will generally be fixed costs not variable. They must take an average from the year before to base their calculations on I presume.
So its not always viable to send out two appliances if sending one is only £350 and can deal with the incident why send out two at £700. As you can see forecast that over a year and by keeping to one pump attendance (where that is appropriate) saves a considerable sum of money
Im not saying its right, but you can see why they do it!
